Now when I say “shopping” I do not mean clothes shopping or jewelry shopping, I mean household item shopping. Tlaquepaque, a suburb of Guadalajara, which is where we stayed, is known for pottery and blown glass. Most people come here for things made by the local factories. This could be pots, lights, furniture, glassware..the list is endless. Since I was not sure what we were getting into I had a priority list. We need doors. Actually on our main room we will have sliders made of glass but we still need another 11 wood doors. Some for inside and some for out. Did you know that doors in Mexico can be made of caoba, cedro, enzio, maple, alder selecto or superior or even alder para escoger, or pino? Then there is mesquite, parota, rosewood and ash.
Decision number one. The wood. Now you try to Google the benefit or rosewood vs. alder para escoger and see what happens!! Of course the prices vary unbelievably…depending upon the wood, and the manufacturer. Our price quotes were as high as $9770pesos (about $800 per door) down to about $6000 pesos or $480 per door. Two of the quotes are from door factories here in Guadalajara.
Visit to door factory number one. We were met outside a lovely antique store in downtown Tlaquepaque by two men in a car. This meeting took place because we asked about some beautiful doors this store had on display and they told us about Hecht Brothers and their factory. We could not quite figure out their directions to the place (yes we rented a car which is a whole other story) so they phoned Hecht, and Domingo and his dad Enrique agreed to meet us at 3:30 and take us to their factory. We followed them out of the downtown area, through a parking lot to a backstreet to a building surrounded by barbed wire and broken bottles on the top of the fence. Of course I am happily parking the car while Barbara is telling me that her husband would kill her if he knew that she followed two strange men to a factory out of town with barbed wire on the top. Funny, the thought never entered my mind! Really! How did I live so long!!!
Well in we go. It is a large, wonderfully smelling place. There are probably 20 workers doing different things to wood products. Some are sanding, some are cutting, others are gluing. This is obviously a place where they know what they are doing. We spend an hour or so learning about what they do and exchange information. They promise to e-mail a quote to us by Wednesday afternoon. I almost beg them to get it earlier. It is Monday and we leave on Thursday. The most important thing we have to buy here are the doors. When we decide on the doors then we can arrange to have everything else shipped with the doors in one container. (Shared with other people like us) We found it is common for contracted companies to handle all the gathering of goods, paperwork and shipments for the buyer. We wanted to buy other things but I just did not want to send them without the doors. We had to buy the doors above all. He said he would get us the quote by Wednesday morning as he was heading to a show in Puerta Vallarta.
On Tuesday we go to Tonala. This is kind of the LA to Beverly Hills comparison. Tlaquepaque is higher end. The shops are lovely, quaint, neat and higher priced. (Even though the prices are still very cheap) Tlaquepaque has a huge area where cars are not allowed. Pedestrians wander around, shopping and stopping at the cafes. Tonala is busy. Lots of cars and 1000’s of small shops selling crap. There are also 1000’s of small shops selling un-crap. You really have to scrounge around to find things. It is so totally overwhelming that I was almost ready to turn around and go back to Tlaquepaque. Luckily someone had given us Oscar’s business card. Oscar makes doors. Oscar arranges shipping. Oscar speaks English! Off we go to find Oscar. When we do get to his teeny tiny little shop we find his wife. She tells us he is at their factory and she directs us there. After getting lost we finally end up at Oscar’s factory, three blocks away. He has two men working there. One is pounding nails and gluing wood together trying to replicate a picture of a headboard that is taped in front of him. The other guy is welding large spheres of metal, which Oscar tells me are going to be lights. Hmmm...dirt floor, two guys, open air concept...why do I like this set up better!!??
After we talk about our needs we give Oscar a ride back to his teeny tiny little store and provide him with a list of doors we need. He tells us to come back in an hour and he and his wife will have prices for us.
We return in an hour and hand written on a piece of paper is each door, the size and the number of pesos it will cost us. To be honest I was surprise how expensive they were. Not that we had much to compare it to but I thought we would pay $200 a door, not $800 a door! Now Oscar uses Mesquite from the forests of Mexico. This is the best wood. We need to keep that in mind. That is Barbara talking, not Oscar. Oscar does zero selling. He smiles, gives us the quote and says he really wants the job and to tell him if it is too much money for us. Off we go.
As of this morning Barbara is on a plane back to Madison. I fly out in 4 hours. We finally got the quote from Hecht Brothers late yesterday afternoon. It was in an e-mail, on a form that they use. It was very detailed and provided us with all the information we would need. They are cheaper than Oscar by about $1000, but they used rosewood. Is this good or bad??? Who knows. Their finishes are machine sleek and smooth. Oscar’s are hand done. They do large orders for hotels. Our order for Oscar is large for him. Hmm.....
Suffice to say we do not have a clue what we are doing. What I do know is that I will be back here. Our 4 days here were filled with so many experiences. I loved the area. It was safe and we had a great time. The shopping is fabulous. We scoped out some great places to buy furniture and wrought iron and metal pots etc. My next trip will be for those things when we are closer to completion.
Right now we have orders sitting in three places. We picked some great light fixtures. Found some of our flooring, and are having two special windows made by a stained glass maker. They are all waiting for the “go ahead” and of course for some pesos. So when Maurice decides on the doors, when I get back today, I will follow-up and confirm the orders in waiting. So all in all it was a successful trip. If it wouldn’t have been for Barbara, though, pushing me along I would have done nothing. It was all very overwhelming for me. I am sorry but 10 blocks of endless ceramica stores is just a little much! I don’t care how much you like shopping!!
The swimming pool was much more inviting!
It sounds wonderful and I hope Diego was able to give you some good ideas- and that Barbara found a silver bracelet for me (my greedy paws need some silver!). We want to come and help with something when you need it- is Guadalajara halfway between Todos Santos and Rochester? ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm with Barbara Shelby! You're way too trusting!
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